It's unfortunate that familiarity to a "style" of photography can make the value of that body of work lessened. The photographer could have done the same amount, if not more, work as anybody else. They could have had a beautiful vision with every stylistic choice chosen for a specific purpose and executed with perfection. Yet, because it is familiar it begins to lose value in the public eye.
On websites across the web you can find well done photos, some strikingly beautiful with a clear vision. But get to the comments and it is full of people complaining about how unoriginal the photos are. Or that "they are beautiful images and technically perfect, but that "look" has been over done. So I don't like it." It's unfortunate that a persons creative work can be belittled by what a bunch of other people happened to do before them. Sure, there are some people who blatantly copy the style, subject and idea of others, but there are even more people who don't.
It seems to be a problem that is difficult, if not impossible, to escape from. Familiarity does make it that much harder to become excited if it is something you have seen a number of times. As amazingly awesome the internet is for viewing new artists and the work of millions of people around the world, it's slowly desensitizing us. We are no longer "wowed" as easily. Looking through websites like 500px and even Flickr, you can browse for a few hours and see dozens of photographers with the same "style." And you are slowly being desensitized to the quality of each photographers work. Does it make one photographers work any less important or well done? No. The photographer whose work you happened to stumble upon first in that "style" will most likely stand out a little more than the rest. Because after that, you begin to see patterns in the stylistic aspects and it becomes known to you. And once you know something it becomes less exciting.
This is a random rant inspired by a posting on F stoppers (
here). I was looking through these photos and thinking how much I like them. The depth of field, the colors, the lighting and the way the subject and background work together perfectly without distracting one another. And then, I got to the comments. A majority of comments were about how this "style" is so overdone. How it's copying Joey L and blah blah blah. And I was distracted from the photos and the quality of the work. It's too bad really. At the end of the day I still remember that photographers work and I now have his website bookmarked on my computer. But too many other people love hating and focusing not on the quality of the work, but the number of times they have seen it already. Which just isn't fair.
